Today was indeed a heartwarming day, wasn’t it? In addition to Soderling and Berdych on the men’s side, on the women’s side we had Elena Dementieva once again flying under the radar to outlast younger and more hyped players to reach her gazillionth Slam semi-final after defeating Nadia Petrova.

I have to admit that probably the worst WTA match I’ve ever watched was between these two ladies, and from the look of things, I’m not sorry I missed this one.

Commiserations to Nadia, who was obviously physically hampered (she pulled out of her doubles match last night) and pulled off two great wins in this tournament, beating Aravane Rezai and Venus Williams to make Roland Garros 2010 at least 50% more boring fashionwise. But equally huge congratulations to Elena, who didn’t come to Paris in the greatest form or physical shape and has looked to be on her way out at least once, only to regroup and find herself with an excellent chance of making the finals.

Elena will face Francesca Schiavone, who asked not what her country could do for her when she beat Caroline Wozniacki 62 63 to become the first Italian woman to make the semi-finals of a Slam. That is huge, and it was a huge performance from her; crafty, aggressive, throwing the full range of her talents at Wozniacki and making her look decidedly one-dimensional.

Q. Your moment of triumph of was so special. Your face was filled with joy. I know it’s difficult, but can you try and talk about emotion, the role of emotion and your play, your feeling at that moment?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Heart attack.

Q. Hard to put in words, is what I meant to say.
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Maybe I can tell you in Italian; is more easy.

Q. In Italian is fine.
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: No, that’s okay.
I think in that moment you remember many things from when you are when you were young. Is special because is your space, is your time, is your opportunity.
I felt alone, but with all the love around me is bo. (I don’t know.) It’s like if I ask you, How did you feel when you married? You say, It’s not easy to explain.
Is not enough?

According to this article and the translation supplied on tennisforum.com, Elena Dementieva may be questioned by the WTA after her 75 46 64 loss to Tsetvana Pironkova in Warsaw yesterday. Polish Eurosport alleges she had a plane ticket to Paris booked before her match.

I don’t believe it, if only because I don’t feel like a torturous early loss for Demmy is an unusual enough event to require any kind of special circumstances to explain it. But there’s definitely something up with her, and I won’t be expecting too much from her in Paris. (Of course, that’s traditionally when she comes up with the goods.)

Speaking of Roland Garros and low expectations, Caroline Wozniacki was forced to retire a set down to Li Na in Warsaw today. She’s reportedly optimistic about playing in Paris, and I’d be stunned if she didn’t. Still, it’s a worrying thing to happen the week before a Slam.

The only other thing that could have made this day more of a comedy of unforced errors? A double retirement in the final and most anticipated match of the day between Tomas Berdych and David Nalbandian. Which, of course, happened. Mardy Fish and Michael Russell, anyone? I don’t even care enough to check who won.

Italy will face the US in a repeat of last year’s Fed Cup final after the doubles pairing of Liezel Huber and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the deciding rubber against Russia’s Elena Dementieva and Alla Kudryavtseva.

USA 3 – Russia 2

A well-deserved flag-bearing role for Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Heading into Sunday, the tie was poised 1-1 with Melanie Oudin and Elena Dementieva winning in straights on the opening day. But Demmy once again proved her Fed Cup credentials by recovering from a bizarre second-set bagel to take the match 63 in the third.

Fed Cup singles debutante Ekaterina Makarova was unable to close out the tie, however, falling to Mattek-Sands in a three-set defeat that left her in tears.

The devastated Makarova was benched for the doubles in favour of Alla Kudryavtseva and the gamble did not pay off, with the Russians never really in the match that Mattek-Sands and Huber won comfortably, 63 61, to kick off the celebrations in Alabama.

Congratulations indeed. Russia may not exactly have fielded their strongest team, but given the continuing and high-profile absences from the American team, it speaks volumes for their camaraderie and commitment that they’ve made their second Fed Cup final in as many years.

Unfortunately, unless something drastic changes, it’s hard to see the final going differently this time than it did in 2009. Admittedly the US will be the hosts and have a choice of surface, but it’s hard to see hard courts as disadvantaging the Italians, and Schiavone at least is no slouch on grass. And the final is right after the year-end championships, so those high-profile absences are probably set to continue. Basically I’m saying we can expect to see more of this:

The 2010 Sony Ericsson WTA Player Awards were given out yesterday in Miami, with Serena picking up Player of the Year; Serena and Venus jointly taking Doubles Team/Fan Favourite Doubles Team of the Year; Kim Clijsters nabbing Comeback and Sportsmanship, Yanina Wickmayer taking Most Improved, Melanie Oudin Newcomer of the Year, and Elena Dementieva winning Fan Favourite Singles Player of the Year.

Meanwhile, Horacio Zeballos picked up the ATP award for Breakthrough of the Year, or something along those lines. I don’t know, I just like looking at his gentle eyes.

I feel like he would gently stroke your hair. For hours. Without being asked.

Congratulations to two first-time titlists this week. Alisa Kleybanova upset Elena Dementieva 63 62 in Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Open title. I didn’t see the match, but Kleybanova must have put in a really impressive performance for that kind of scoreline against Demmy. Good stuff.

And in Delray Beach, Ernests Gulbis didn’t drop a set all week on his way to his first ATP title, defeating Ivo Karlovic 62 63 for the trophy. I did not see that coming.

I have to confess I’ve kept no more than a little finger on the Ernie wagon after 2009’s endless disappointments and solicitation scandals. But for those of his fans who have been less than fair-weather, this must feel amazing – and it’s just great to see someone with so much talent showing signs of capitalising on his early promise. Celebrations all round.

Huge congratulations to Elena. She had some tough opponents to deal with, none more so than Lucie. The third set was really great stuff and should be taken as a smack in the face to all those who say that the WTA doesn’t produce good finals. That Elena burst into tears when she won really showed how much it meant to her.

And just when things couldn’t get more heartwarming, Momo presented her with the trophy.

Robin Soderling d. Mikhail Youzhny, 64 20 ret.

Poor, poor Mikhail Youzhny. He played so well to beat Nole in the semis (just like he did to beat Gasquet at the AO), then once again injury strikes him down. He was clearly heartbroken. Sad face.

A hearty ‘yay’ to Robin Soderling though. He had a nightmare at Chennai and the AO and a lot of people have been questioning whether he would be able to back up last year’s career-best achievements. Well, he’s not doing badly so far.

Vera Zvonareva d. Tamarine Tanasugarn, 64 64

Welcome back to the winner’s circle, Vera.

(Other tourney results to follow as soon as they finish / I can find decent photos.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lucie Safarova. She’s beaten Paszek, Schiavone, Peer and now Flavia Pennetta, 46 63 64, to reach her second Paris final (she lost out to Nadia Petrova in 2007). From what I saw of her match against Flavia today, she was on fire.

Safs will be facing another second-time Paris finalist after Elena Dementieva beat Melanie Oudin, 46 64 63. It was a good performance from the believer, but after she wasn’t able to capture the second set, her fitness really let her down in the third and after three consecutive breaks, Dementieva won five of the last six games to take the match.

It was an encouraging tournament for Oudin, though, who moves on to Memphis next week. Elena said that it was the toughest win of the year for her so far, which is nice, considering some of the people she’s beaten. Good stuff.

For the first time since the tournament’s inception, there won’t be a Frenchwoman in the quarterfinals in Paris. Second seed Flavia Pennetta beat compatriot Tathiana Garbin, 61 63, to book her spot and will face Lucie Safarova, who demolished sixth seed Shahar Peer 63 60. As my wise friend Jacko would no doubt point out, the fast courts in Paris are made for Safs, and you can’t deny she has oodles of talent … but why does she only show up once in a blue moon? Answers on a postcard.

The other semifinal is a US Open rematch between Elena Dementieva and her spunky kryptonite, Melanie Oudin. Dementieva survived a tough challenge from Andrea Petkovic (now undoubtedly out getting drunk as we speak, and rightly so).

I would have given anything to be able to illustrate this result with a picture of Petkovic miming shooting herself in the head, by the way. Just putting it out there.

Melanie Oudin, meanwhile, continues her upwards momentum. She’s now won her last five matches after coming back from 26 13 down against Agnes Szavay to win 62 in the third. It was another inspiringly gutsy performance, as she was complaining of being ill during the first set and, more significantly, being comprehensively outplayed by Szavay before she clawed her way back in to the match and managed to exert just enough pressure to provide Szavay with an excuse to fall apart. By the third set, both were completely different players, and at least Melanie was moving in the right direction.

In Pattaya City meanwhile, a.k.a the Land that Photojournalists Forgot, hometown girl Tamarine Tanasugarn put an end to Anna Chakvetadze’s two-match streak and will face Sesil Karantcheva in the first semi. In the second, it’ll be Vera Zvonareva against Yaroslava Shvedova. Fair and balanced.